Dickie Chicken achieved solely reasonable success in his first cricketing profession, however from the second he traded his bat for an umpire‘s cap he was properly on the way in which to changing into a towering determine within the sport’s historical past.
It’s usually stated {that a} good umpire is one which goes unnoticed, however one want by no means look past Chicken for an exception to that rule.
Chicken, who has died on the age of 92, was without delay an excellent umpire and unattainable to disregard.
Though the quintessential Yorkshire cricket man, his good nature, vivid character and magnetic attraction to unlikely or amusing circumstances noticed his legend outgrow geographical and sporting borders.
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(Anna Gowthorpe/PA)
(Rebecca Naden/PA)
Recognition
He shared the sector with a number of the sport’s largest stars and brightest skills however, most of the time, a line of autograph-hunters fashioned to fulfill the person within the center on the finish of a day’s play. He signed each time.
Chicken’s recognition in the end transcended umpiring too. His autobiography chalked up greater than 1,000,000 gross sales, changing into the nation’s largest promoting sports activities e-book ever, and he entertained the general public for years as a TV character and travelling raconteur.
In a favoured anecdote he claimed his one-man present drew a much bigger viewers in Leeds than Shirley Bassey.
When he ascended to the function of Yorkshire president in 2014, he took even higher pleasure within the group’s county championship triumph in his first season and even forked out £125,000 to fund a brand new gamers’ balcony at Headingley.
A renewed involvement together with his outdated facet proved a serious autumn boon following a interval of ill-health and loneliness which adopted a stroke in 2009 and he described his appointment because the “pinnacle of my life”.
(Anthony Devlin/PA)
Married to cricket
Chicken can be celebrated farther and wider than he may ever have hoped, significantly throughout the cricket household, which acted as a surrogate for his personal lack of spouse or youngsters.
In his personal phrases he was “married to cricket” and it was an extended and completely happy union.
Born on April 19, 1933 in Barnsley, he was named Harold Dennis, having not but adopted his schoolboy nickname.
Father James Chicken was a miner at Monk Bretton Colliery, man and boy, and needed higher for his son, for whom sport was an early and apparent ardour.
His future may simply have been in football, having captained the Raley Faculty group and earned a youth contract as an inside ahead with Barnsley.
As an alternative he suffered a knee injury at 15 and by no means performed correctly once more.
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Lifelong bond
He had at all times cherished cricket too and had achieved so ever since his father bowled to him on the identical stretch of land that now homes a bronze statue of Chicken, arm outstretched and finger prolonged – a well-known sight over his 28 years as an expert umpire.
Requested as soon as if he minded that late-night revellers had taken to hanging numerous undergarments from the statue’s finger, Chicken cheerfully famous it was a extra respectful response than vandalism.
The younger Chicken was taken underneath the wing of Alf Broadhead at Barnsley Cricket Membership, having initially been turned away from a trial web.
Broadhead had additionally taken an curiosity in two different batting prospects, one named Geoffrey Boycott and one other known as Michael Parkinson, and their time within the nets collectively fashioned a agency, lifelong bond between three of the county’s favorite sons.
Chicken claimed to have a way to rival Boycott, however a temperament much less suited to elite competitors.
There have been highs, akin to his career-best 181 not out for Yorkshire, and lows, akin to his instant dropping from the very subsequent match.
Dickie Chicken stands subsequent to the statue of himself in his residence city of Barnsley
(John Giles/PA)
Redefined
He left Yorkshire over an absence of alternatives however failed to seek out his toes at Leicestershire and retired on the age of 32 with a mean of 20.71.
It was a poor return for his laborious work, however it might not start to outline him.
Chicken officiated a county match for the primary time in 1970 and stood in his first Check simply three years later.
By the point he departed the scene he had redefined his personal profession and reset the parameters of the job itself.
The tales are legion: the bomb scare at Lord’s, when he noticed proceedings whereas sat atop the covers within the centre of the pitch; the burst water pipes at Headingley and his entertaining alternate of opinions with a annoyed crowd; a primary recorded occasion of ‘good gentle stopped play’ because of a Trent Bridge greenhouse; an elbow harm sustained whereas slipping within the showers on the Girls’s World Cup.
But none of his tales would have been fairly so amusing had he not been so good at his job.
Dickie Chicken shares a joke with the Queen forward of a Check match between England and New Zealand
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Neutral
An instinctive ‘not outer’ admittedly, a trait that contributed to a few of his principally good-natured interactions with bowlers, he was nonetheless constant, clear and communicative.
He was additionally completely neutral at a time when that might not at all times be assured. Simply ask Michael Atherton.
Atherton was credited with organising the unprecedented guard of honour with which England and India welcomed Chicken on the event of his 66th and remaining Check at Lord’s.
It was a gesture that touched the emotional Chicken, who was left moist-eyed and in want of a second to compose himself earlier than play started.
Castaway
There was no room for sentiment three balls later as Javagal Srinath went up for lbw and Chicken despatched Atherton packing for a duck.
Inside days he had left cricket, although it by no means left him.
When he appeared on Desert Island Discs, additional proof of his family identify standing, he selected satellite tv for pc TV as his luxurious merchandise – for the categorical function of watching Check matches – and his e-book choice was the Wisden Almanack.
It will be laborious to think about a extra contented castaway.
